Welcome guest. Before posting on our computer help forum, you must register. Click here it's easy and free.

Author Topic: Will VGA to composite video adapter work with this video card?  (Read 3794 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

comporanger

    Topic Starter


    Rookie

    • Experience: Familiar
    • OS: Windows 8
    Will VGA to composite video adapter work with this video card?
    « on: November 19, 2013, 12:07:05 PM »
    Planning to buy a Raedon HD 5450 video card ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131338 )and use it to drive three displays simultaneously, from an HP Pavillion running 64 bit Windows Vista. I want to take a VGA to composite video adapter, like this

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-VGA-SVGA-to-S-VIDEO-RCA-TV-AV-Converter-Cable-Adapter-Super-Fast-Ship-For-TV/170858663437?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D18243%26meid%3D28181280003

     and input the signal from the card's VGA output into a TV. Is this possible?

    DaveLembke



      Sage
    • Thanked: 662
    • Certifications: List
    • Computer: Specs
    • Experience: Expert
    • OS: Windows 10
    Re: Will VGA to composite video adapter work with this video card?
    « Reply #1 on: November 19, 2013, 02:52:23 PM »
    The video card has to support this, and Most Cards DON'T!. Most people run into problems trying to just split VGA to Composite via just a passive cable. Most cards have to support this feature to allow for this cable to work with them. Most people end up having to use a converter box that translates the analog signal instead. I would contact the manufacturer of the card and see if they claim this cable will work with it. Many will claim that the cable will not work and you need an analog video converter box instead for around $75-$150 etc.

    Also TV's make a horrible monitor unless they are the newer flat screens with HD etc. I had a HTPC that I was running on an old 27" CRT Magnavox TV and it was perfect for watching movies over S-Video Cable from Video Card to TV, but surfing the web etc was very grainy looking and blurry for a movie or show to watch on www.crackle.com for free etc. Upgraded to a newer 32" HD Flatscreen TV and it came with a VGA input on the side of it and used that direct VGA connection instead for a while until I upgraded my HTPC to a video card with HDMI and now sound and video are sent to TV directly over HDMI cable thru video card to TV and so picture is sharp even when surfing the web with wireless keyboard and mouse setup from recliner.

    comporanger

      Topic Starter


      Rookie

      • Experience: Familiar
      • OS: Windows 8
      Re: Will VGA to composite video adapter work with this video card?
      « Reply #2 on: November 19, 2013, 03:19:06 PM »
      Thanks for your help! I'm only using the composite video to supply OSD info to a small screen, so quality shouldn't be too much of an issue. I gather it may be possible to use the onboard VGA video output of the motherboard at the same time as the PCIe video card- I might be able to get my three outputs that way. Does anyone have experience in doing this?

      DaveLembke



        Sage
      • Thanked: 662
      • Certifications: List
      • Computer: Specs
      • Experience: Expert
      • OS: Windows 10
      Re: Will VGA to composite video adapter work with this video card?
      « Reply #3 on: November 19, 2013, 03:52:06 PM »
      I havent gotten 3 displays to work yet with Windows, although some others have. As far as running Integraded Video + Video Card, I haven't had this work yet with PCI Express Video Cards and Integrated Video, however I was able to make it work with a older GeForce 4 MX 440 PCI video card in a HP Pentium 4 running Windows XP Pro SP2 where I was able to set up dual-displays and span the content among the 2 displays among the Geforce Video card and Intel 845 chipset GPU.

      All systems with AGP or PCI Express, the motherboards for me took it as default to disable the integrated and not offer it to be enabled. It may be a feature that is hard coded into the motherboards design that may allow for you to run both integrated and a card in AGP or PCIe slot at same time for multiple displays, but the only setup that I found that worked for multiple displays with integrated used along side a video card was with an older Pentium 4 HP S-Class tower with older PCI video card.

      These days people who use multiple displays generally have a video card with 2 outputs or motherboard that allows for 2 video cards to have say 4 display outputs etc, however there is also a method I have seen for a point of sale application where they wanted to add a display to a setup that wouldnt take a video card installation and so they added a USB/VGA video card adapter, which while its not powerful enough for video content or gaming, it allows for information to be displayed and runs off of an available USB port and monitor connected with it. The OS treats it as an extra video card even though its a USB video card device that is not very powerful for processing thru its small lightweight processing GPU. We used a product like this one, but not this same model. I think ours was made by Startech: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812866007 * Not sure if this device is hard coded to only act as display #2 or if you can team it with a video card that has 2 video outputs and use it as a 3rd, but you can always contact the mfr before buying it to see if they claim it will work as a 3rd display adapter.

      In the stores that we used these USB VGA video adapters in we basically had a small 15" flat screen display at the registers that ran through a powerpoint slide loop to advertise to the customers while they were standing in line about store events that were coming up such as Wine Tasting on Friday at 6pm, or other promotional stuff to drive sales or show a short series of information on the community charity "partner of the month" that customers can donate $1, $5, $10, or $20 to by grabbing colored slips of paper and handing them to the cashier to scan the barcode on and donate money to a charity etc.

      These worked well for the stores application and are probably still working 5 years later, BUT... were only set up as 2nd displays vs 3rds!